Four Times Jack Saw Rapunzel
by coral2000
Summary: (among many others) Also about the Official Jack Frost and Rapunzel Stars. Some of the important moments leading up to the big "I Love You"s. Fluffy. Kind of character death? Not really, though. Yeah... just some Jackunzel 'cause they are utterly cute. :P


The first time Jack met Rapunzel, he had thought she was crazy (even though he did crash into her room on accident). That night he had gotten lost in the sensation of flying and soared straight into a tree. When he tumbled down to the icy ground and brushed himself off, he finally noticed the giant tower in the distance. And so he went to investigate.

Keep in mind this was before Jack really got the hang of flying. At least, that's what he says to defend himself when Rapunzel reminds him of how he flew straight through her window and into a wall covered in paintings. When Jack finally realized what happened and scowled to himself for his multiple accidents that night, a giggle resonated through the room. Jack whirled around to see a small girl with long (insanely long), blond hair and overlarge green eyes smiling widely from her bed in the corner of the room. She waved to him frantically. "Hello, who are you?" she asked. Her voice was soft and melodic, as though she were singing.

Jack blinked. So… people could see him then? All the people he had come across before hadn't even realized he was there. (He hadn't been a spirit for that long yet.)

"Can you… can you talk?" The girl tilted her head and made her way over to him slowly, her hair trailing after her. "Are you… real?"

"Um, yeah, I think so." Jack was a bit startled. Was he real? Well… he was alive, wasn't he?

"Why'd you crash into the wall?"

Jack patted his hair down self-consciously. "I was, um, practicing. So if I do crash, I won't be surprised." (Yeah… that sounds believable. Sort of)

"But you _did_ crash."

Jack cleared his throat. "Okay, so what's your name?" (Maybe that would distract her.)

A smile lit up the girl's face again. She bounced on her heels. "I'm Rapunzel," she informed him. "And my favorite thing to do is paint."

Well, it was pretty obvious. The walls were covered in paintings of all kinds. "So… what's up with the tower? And, um, your hair?" (Okay, let's start a decent conversation here.)

But Rapunzel's eyes widened and she abruptly seemed nervous. Tugging on her hair, she seemed to shrink back as she regarded Jack again. "You're… you're here to steal hair, aren't you?" Her voice quavered suddenly with panic. "You can't have my hair. It's _mine._ You're mean and selfish. Selfish! My mommy won't let you have my hair!"

"What?" (She's crazy, isn't she?) "Why would I want your hair? And why do you think I'm selfish?"

Rapunzel took a giant breath. "Mommy! Mommy!"

The sound of running footsteps could be heard. Suddenly, a woman with giant, curly black hair and wild eyes burst into the room. "Yes, Rapunzel? What is it?" she demanded, yanking the child roughly toward her and looking around frantically, as though she were… afraid?

"Someone came into my room through the window! He's after my hair!"

The woman gasped and looked around with sharp eyes, her grip tightening painfully on Rapunzel's arm. "Where is he? Where did he go?"

"He's _right there_!" She pointed at him. Jack pressed himself against the wall.

"There's no one there, Rapunzel! Where is he?" The woman's fear turned to exasperation and her glare flickered to the frightened child.

"Against the wall!"

The woman let out an angry, frustrated sigh. "Come with me." It wasn't a request. "It'd be safer if you stayed in my room tonight." She pulled Rapunzel with her as she marched away.

Heart racing, Jack leapt out of the window and flew away.

* * *

The second time Jack saw Rapunzel, he was pretty upset. Apparently, people couldn't see him. Well, nobody except the strange little girl. (_Figures that the only person that knows who I exist is totally crazy_, Jack thought.) And, because Jack found her tower on accident, he couldn't find her anymore. It had been 5 or so years already and he was anxious to find her to understand how she could see him. And he was afraid of her dying.

He had searched through multiple forests around the area where he had crash-landed but found no trace of a giant tower. He was about to give up hope when-

Ouch. Headfirst into a tall, ivy covered tower. (_Great. Perfect thing to brighten my day._)

But it wasn't just any tower. It looked an awful lot like the one where Rapunzel lived. (Finally)

Jack hovered outside the window for a moment, preparing himself, before floating inside. It was all dark and empty looking, but as he wandered further in, he saw her talking to… a lizard?

"Uh… you're Rapunzel, right?" he asked hesitantly.

The small girl (was she around 10 now?) whirled around, her now even-longer blond hair swishing. She gasped and dropped the lizard, which made a squeaking noise of protest. ("Sorry, Pascal!")

"Who are you and how did you get here?" she said, her voice shaking. Then she blinked. "You…"

Jack readied himself for her to blow up and demand to know why he had returned for her hair or whatever and scream for her mom, but she finished, "You look just like that flying boy from my dream." She studied him for a moment. "You flew in here, didn't you?"

_ Okay, so being the random flying boy is a step up from the hair thief,_ Jack decided. "Yeah. Do you remember me?"

"You went into my room and I thought you were stealing my hair," she stated matter-of-factly, as though it happened a lot.

"You don't think that anymore?"

"No." Rapunzel bent down to pick up the lizard and placed it on her shoulder. "You didn't try to attack me and you disappeared for years. You aren't trying to use my hair, are you?" The lizard disappeared into her hair, which made Jack uneasy.

"I don't know what you mean by 'use' your hair," Jack said. (Where did the lizard even go?)

Rapunzel eyed Jack with suspicion. "I can trust you, right?" she asked.

"Sure. It's not like I can tell anyone, anyways." (Did it live in her hair or something?)

"Why not?" Rapunzel said, confused.

"No one besides you can see me," answered Jack, shrugging it off.

Rapunzel's eyes widened with curiosity. "Really?" she asked excitedly. "Why can't they?"

"Well…"

Needless to say, Jack didn't find out about Rapunzel's hair that day, but she found out all about his life. And at least she wasn't crazy anymore.

* * *

Jack had visited Rapunzel many times since then, and he had finally found out what the big deal with her hair was. (He nearly fainted… but don't tell anyone. It's a big secret, 'cause obviously _Jack Frost_ should be able to handle the news of magical glowing and/or healing hair.) She had grown now and was his age, but she still had never left the tower. He had offered to take her outside many times, but she always refused, claiming she needed to stay for her mother.

He didn't have the heart to tell her that Gothel wasn't exactly the image of a caring mother.

On the day that Rapunzel died, she still had never set foot beyond the tower walls.

Jack had just been on his way to visit when he saw the plume of dark smoke climbing into the sky. Confused, he flew closer to see what was wrong and nearly fell out of the air in shock.

Rapunzel's tower was on fire.

Jack let out a surprised scream before recovering and rushing into the tower window. Everything was up in flames and wooden beams were falling. Fire coated the walls and smoke was so thick that Jack could hardly see or breathe (Could he die from that?).

"Punzie?" he called desperately, coughing from the smoke. Blindly, he shot ice from his staff to put out some of the flames as he worked his way further into the tower. But he saw nothing left besides stone walls and ash. The paint had even been burnt black, so there was no hint that Rapunzel had ever lived inside. "Rapunzel?!"

His eyes were stinging as he tried to stop the fire, but he couldn't see well enough, so he stumbled to the window and leapt out. From the outside, he froze everything he could reach, hoping that Rapunzel was alive and he hadn't frozen her.

Finally, he went back inside (If you'd call it "inside." The roof and half the tower were gone.). He searched for Rapunzel, but with it all laid out, bare and black and coated with ice, he could see no one there. He was alone in a forest in a half burned tower that nobody knew about. And Rapunzel was gone.

Frustrated, he yelled and kicked the wall before slumping down beside it and burying his face in his hands. Nobody could see him now. But more importantly, his only friend in the world had burned in a fire he could've prevented if he'd gotten there earlier. Tears that he would never admit escaped turned to icy shards as they fell and shattered on the floor.

* * *

The first time Jack met Rapunzel the spirit, he was utterly and completely shocked. He was spending time sulking in what was left of the tower, which he did quite frequently since the fire, when suddenly the stone floor started to glow. Golden light pierced through the cracks and drifted into the air in glimmering spirals. In the middle of it all, a shape was forming – a girl in a dress. The light was so bright Jack had to shield his eyes to prevent him from being blinded.

When he looked again, the light was dimming, leaving a non-glowing girl standing bewildered where the light was so concentrated before. He blinked at the girl, paralyzed. Was it really her?

Her eyes were still the same- abnormally large and vivid green. Her skin was still tan (although she had never really been exposed to sunlight) with light freckles dusted across her nose and flushed pink cheeks. And her hair… it was still long and golden, but it was extremely short by her standards, only up to her ankles. Jack gaped. It really was her, wasn't it?

The last of the golden light faded and Rapunzel was left standing on her own, somewhat dazed. "Punzie?" whispered Jack.

Rapunzel looked at him blankly for a moment before her eyes suddenly lit up in joy. "Jack!" she exclaimed, running towards him. He laughed and spun her in the air.

Rapunzel's smile stretched across her face, the dimple in her left cheek showing. Jack had missed her so much he could barely speak, choked with happiness, so he just held her tight and buried his face into her long hair.

* * *

Jack and Rapunzel. Rapunzel and Jack. It was always the two of them.

Whenever North saw Jack messing with the toys the yetis made, Rapunzel would be nearby, teaching the elves how to sing Christmas carols.

And when Bunnymund would happily allow Rapunzel to set up Easter with him, he'd have to reluctantly allow Jack in (and Jack would always end up ruining a few eggs as Rapunzel laughed, completely at home in the eternal springtime).

Sandy and Tooth had no problem with the two, and all the Guardians knew that the day would soon come when Jack and Rapunzel "came to terms with their relationship," as North called it.

* * *

The first time Jack saw Rapunzel as anything other than a friend had been a long time ago; twenty years, maybe. And he thought he'd just have to accept that he'd be friendzoned for eternity, but, of course, that was not the case.

The millionth or so time Jack saw Rapunzel, they were watching the stars. As the spirit of flowers and sunshine and creativity, Rapunzel was more of a daytime person, but she held an endless fascination with the glittering stars up in the sky, and Jack never minded stargazing with her. He enjoyed it, actually (Well, of course he did. He was completely in love with her, so… why not?).

"You see that star there?" he asked one day, pointing high in the sky.

"Yeah." Rapunzel squinted at it to see it better. "What about it?"

"That's the Jack Frost Star," Jack stated knowledgably, nodding as though to agree with himself. "It's the best looking star out there."

Rapunzel laughed like bells and birdsong. "No, it's not," she disagreed, shaking her head so her golden hair fell in front of her face. She pushed it away, tucking it behind her ear. "Stop making things up."

"Yeah, it is. The official Jack Frost Star, as certified by the official Jack Frost." He grinned as Rapunzel laughed again.

"Ooh, big word. Certified. Can't believe you know how to use it," she teased, bumping his shoulder good naturedly. "Fine then. If that's the Jack Frost Star, then that star right next to it is the Rapunzel Star, so we can be together forever." She beamed, her eyes sparkling as she studied them.

Jack glanced at her, enraptured with the stars, and he couldn't stop the words he blurted out next.

"I love you."

There was sudden silence. Even the crickets stopped chirping as Rapunzel's head jerked to the side to stare at Jack. Her eyes were wide.

"Are you… are you teasing me?" Her voice was unsteady.

For a split second, Jack wanted to laugh it off. He wanted to say, "Of course I am, Punzie! You know we're just friends," but he had been backing out of it for too long. He took a deep breath.

"Why would I joke about that?" His eyes met hers, completely serious, and she blinked.

The world waited with bated breath.

Then, a smile spread across Rapunzel's face and she crushed Jack in a sudden hug. "I love you, too, you big idiot!"

Above them, two stars (right next to each other) twinkled brightly.


End file.
